9 Social Media Tips Authors Can’t Live Without

• Which social media is best to promote your book?
Rather than rely solely on traditional media, such as newspapers and television, writers today have to get the word out about their book utilizing social media outlets. So which social media outlet is the best way to tell the world about your book?

• Cheat sheet for social media photo sizes  
Anytime you share imagery via social media, you want to ensure it is visually pleasing. That means ensuring it’s not blurry or cropped so that key parts of the chart or photograph are missing or visually unattractive. Showing viewers a fuzzy image or only a part of a photo is akin to leaving words out of a sentence.

• Follow social media etiquette during promos
When promoting your book via social media, you’ll want to make sure you’re observing the site’s “social etiquette.” Users of each site have unwritten standards of what is considered spamming, overt advertising, and poor taste. Rest assured, violate the rules and you undercut your ability to sell your title.

• Add hashtags to your social media posts 
Among the best ways to increase your social media visibility is to use hashtags. This involves adding a pound sign (aka as a crosshatch or a tic-tac-toe sign) before a keyword in your post or adding the sign/keyword at the end it.

• Use link shorteners for tidier promotions
When promoting your books, of course you want to include links to your website, blog and various social media platforms. Sometimes – such as with a paperback – you have to write out those links. Often those links have really long addresses or you end up with a list of links that looks like alphabet and number soup. The solution is to use a link shortener.

• Promote books to young adults using their social media
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• Use Reddit to promote young adult male books
If your book’s primary readership is young adult males, you may want to consider using the social media site Reddit. The site allows registered users to post short blurbs and then links about the news and entertainment world, as well as various other topics.

• Place social media addresses in your book
While not everyone who reads your book will like it, most will – and some will absolutely fall in love with your writing and become a fan. Such fans are likely to purchase more of your books or to tell others about your titles. 

• Promote your book by blogging about it 
Perhaps one of the best ways to bring potential readers to your website is by blogging. With a blog, you’ll be providing a lot of fresh information on a variety of topics related to your book, increasing the chances that someone will stumble across your writing and then head to your website.